Say Yes, 60th Anniversary Edition: 60 Years of Giving Children a Future

Guest Editorial by Professor İhsan Doğramacı

December ushered in the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Throughout these sixty years, I have been associated in many capacities with the humanitarian efforts of the international community. Among the signatories to the Constitution of the World Health Organisation (WHO), also founded in 1946, I am the sole survivor.

I was familiar with the work of UNICEF from the outset. As is well known, UNICEF was originally established to be of assistance to children in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. Its first director, Maurice Pate, accepted the position on condition that it should serve the children of the defeated and victorious nations equally. Soon afterwards, he visited Ankara, where I was busy establishing a children’s hospital and an institute of child health. I requested assistance from UNICEF in order to equip these establishments. In response, he gave me an office and a secretary at the UNICEF building in New York and I was able to choose from a catalogue the required items.

National committees for UNICEF were gradually set up in various countries. In 1958, I became president of the Turkish National Committee. With its headquarters in Ankara, this committee opened branches in Istanbul and in many other Turkish provinces and began to work with local branches of the Turkish National Pediatric Society.

I remained president of the Turkish National Committee for UNICEF until 2003, when I was made honourary life–president, and succeeded as president by Professor Talat Halman. At the international level, meanwhile, I had served for three terms as vice chairman of the UNICEF Executive Board and chairman of the Progamme Committee, and subsequently for two terms as chairman of the Executive Board.

Since 1968, I also served continuously as president, executive director and, most recently, honourary president of the International Pediatric Association where I encouraged members to work for the protection and treatment of all children. The 500,000 members of the Association began to work for ‘Healthy Children for a Healthy World’, pledging to influence policy–makers and defending children’s rights to health and development. The May 2002 United Nations Special Session for Children (UNSSC) made it possible for us to carry this mission further.

After graduating from the İstanbul Faculty of Medicine in 1938, I quickly became aware of the high level of child mortality and the poor state of children’s health, particularly in rural areas. At that time, a third of all babies died before reaching their first birthdays. That was when I first felt that I could be instrumental in improving the situation and I have been fortunate to witness a dramatic improvement. With the aid of activities such as the Child Survival Revolution initiated by UNICEF at the beginning of the 1980s, the infant mortality rate has fallen to a tenth of what it was in those days, or approximately 26 per thousand.

Sixty years ago most of our villages had no running water. All that has changed. Literacy has also increased tremendously. Nevertheless, we still have some distance to cover. In Europe, the infant mortality rate is 8–10 per thousand, and in some countries, such as Japan and Finland, it is lower still. We now have the infrastructure in Turkey to catch up. Unfortunately the percentage of babies exclusively breastfed in the first six months of life is still low. We have to work harder at keeping prepared formulas out of our hospitals and maternity hospitals.

These are examples from my own area of specialisation — the survival and nutrition of young children — which also remains a core focus of UNICEF’s work. But other issues need to be tackled: most children now live in urban areas where they are exposed to additional risks, and struggle to develop their full potential. Child poverty remains a problem. Providing all children with a good education is vital not just for the well–being of the children themselves but for creating a better world.

On a global scale, the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have–nots’ has widened. If 20% of the world’s population accounts for 80% of its income, then something must be wrong. In order to have peace we must eliminate poverty, especially extreme poverty. The well–to–do countries must realise that exploitation will only operate to their disadvantage in the long run. We also need to confront exploitation, corruption, irredentism, xenophobia and lack of tolerance towards those of different beliefs and nationalities. Instead of teaching tolerance from a very early age, we are training children to be soldiers and then killing them in wars.

While we have good reason to celebrate UNICEF’s 60th birthday, we are also looking forward to further fruitful partnership between UNICEF and the nations of the world. We continue, rightly, to expect maximum support from the international community and national governments for initiatives aimed at enabling children to enjoy their natural rights. At the same time, we must go on asking the question which has goaded me throughout my career: What can I do about it? The private sector, non–governmental organisations and individuals everywhere have an increasingly vital part to play in fulfiling the United Nations’ vision of a world fit for children.

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